Agfa Parat (1963)

Compact half-frame 35mm camera line introduced in 1963 with manual and automatic exposure variants.

Overview

The Agfa Parat family has three cameras: the Parat I, the Paramat, and the Optima-Parat. All three are half-frame 35mm cameras introduced in 1963 as Agfa's entry into the growing compact camera market. They shoot 18 x 24mm exposures, which gets you up to 72 frames on a standard 135 film roll. The Parat I is fully manual. It has a 30mm f/2.8 Agfa Color Apotar lens, a scale focus viewfinder, and shutter speeds from 1/30 to 1/125 seconds plus B. The Paramat adds selenium-cell metering with automatic aperture control and a red/green exposure indicator in the viewfinder. The Optima-Parat has an Advanced Compur shutter with speeds up to 1/500 second, manual override, and a Color Solinar 30mm f/2.8 lens. All models share a compact, lightweight plastic body and a hot shoe with M and X sync.

Specifications

Film Format	18 x 24mm on 35mm film (half frame)
Max Exposures	72 frames per 135 film roll
Frame Counter	Registers 72 frames
Dimensions	10.9 x 7.2 x 4.9 cm

Design

The Parat body is compact, lightweight, and made almost entirely of plastic. Most controls sit on the lens barrel. Two plastic tabs adjust shutter speed and aperture. Focus is set by turning the ring around the front lens element, which is marked in meters and feet with pictograms for portrait (~1.8m), group (~4m), and landscapes (infinity). The top plate has a film rewind knob, a rewind release, and the hot shoe above the advance lever. The bottom has a film door latch, a tripod socket, and the film counter. The shutter button is rectangular with a threaded cable socket. The design is derived from Agfa's full-frame Optima series. The focus ring attaches to the front lens group with three small brass screws under the nameplate.

Context

Agfa released the Parat line in 1963, during a resurgence of interest in half-frame cameras spurred by the success of the Olympus Pen in 1959. Agfa positioned the family as a compact, economical alternative for casual photographers, competing with models from Olympus, Canon, Minolta, Fuji, and Yashica. The three models look much alike: the manual Parat I, the auto-aperture Paramat, and the more advanced Optima-Parat with shutter-priority automation and manual override.

Market

The Parat I originally sold for approximately half the price of the Paramat, with an estimated cost of $39.95. A common problem is "green grease syndrome" in the helical focus mechanism, which can seize the focus ring. The fix is usually cleaning and re-lubrication, and it often needs collimation afterward. The Parat I has no selenium meter, so it is more likely to still work today than the Paramat and Optima-Parat, whose automatic exposure systems depend on aging selenium cells.